How to Set Up Hot Keys for NaturallySpeaking

Dragon NaturallySpeaking allows you to set up Hotkeys. All the buttons on the Hotkeys tab work the same way: Click the button and a Set Hot Key dialog box pops up. When it does, don’t try to type the names of the keys, just press them. For instance, press the Ctrl key, and {Ctrl} appears. Click OK when done.

On the Hotkeys tab you see the following options you may want to set:

Microphone On/Off: If you choose a regular keyboard key (like a letter), you must use Ctrl or Alt with it. Otherwise, function keys, arrow keys, and other non-typewriter keys are all fair game either by themselves or in combination with Ctrl or Alt.

Correction dialog box: This key pops up the Correction dialog box to correct the last phrase you spoke. The rules are the same as for Microphone On/Off.

Force Command Recognition: Hold this key down to try to make NaturallySpeaking interpret what you say as a command, not text. It can be only Ctrl, Alt, Shift, or some combination of them.

Force Dictation Recognition: This does the opposite of Force Command Recognition (makes what you say come out as text). Rules for keys are the same as Force Command Recognition.

Previous versions of NaturallySpeaking had a results box that showed what Dragon thought you said as you dictated. In version 11, this has been streamlined to a results display. As you dictate, you will notice a little Dragon icon displayed near your text. When you pause dictation, the words show up in your document. Nuance made this change after discovering that users were distracted by following the results box.

This is a great improvement and you do not need to switch back to the results box option if you are new to NaturallySpeaking. If, however, you are used to seeing the results box and want to display it, do the following:

Go to Tools→Options→View tab.

Look at the section toward the bottom called Results Box.

Click the pull-down arrow under Auto-hide Delay and select Always Hide or some amount of time it will display.

You can also choose whether you want it to stay in one place by selecting the anchor check box or whether you want to show preliminary results.

Okay, so I have familiarized myself with the controls. Now how do I dictate? you may be asking. Easy: Plug in your microphone, put it on, click the Microphone On/Off button (also duplicated on the Windows taskbar’s system tray), and talk!